Friday, May 30, 2014

Review finds warming is beneficial to ocean productivity

A new SPPI and CO2 Science review of the scientific literature on the response of ocean productivity to warming concludes, "In light of the many real-world observations cited above, not only does there appear to be no indications of any widespread decline in oceanic productivity over the twentieth century in response to increases in air temperature, evidence indicates that just the opposite is occurring, thanks to the very same environmental change, which is actually proving to be beneficial."

According to the IPCC, CO2-induced global warming will be net harmful to the world's marine species. One consequence of such harm, is a projected decline in ocean productivity. And in light of what the IPCC frequently refers to as the unprecedented modern rise in global temperature, it might reasonably be expected there should already be signs of a major negative impact on oceanic productivity. Yet the studies highlighted in this summary yield little evidence in support of the IPCC point of view.

It would appear that by enhancing the upwelling of cooler nutrient-rich waters along the eastern margins of major ocean basins, global warming helps to significantly enhance global-ocean primary productivity, which leads in turn to an increase in global-ocean secondary productivity, as represented by the global fish catch.